Historic Quote: “The advent of these sleek coaches should provide a shot in the arm to both legs of Nevada’s passenger train system.” Nevada Senator Howard Cannon
When one thinks of the last name Cannon, they may be forgiven for thinking of the detective played by the late actor William Conrad in the 1970’s detective series. A tough persona with a friendly demeanor.There was another Cannon in public life throughout that era, and he had a similar demeanor. Adventurous, boyish, tough. There was also a Senator who survived by a margin of 48 votes. His name was Howard Cannon and he represented Nevada for 24 years in the Senate.
The race was so close that he was actually projected the loser, just as then Governor Dick Bryan would be declared defeated for that same seat in 1988. Interestingly, the third closest Senate race was also in Nevada, when Senator Key won by 110 votes (number two was a 1922 race in Delaware). But in pre-Nevada boom, those numbers were significantly lower.
Harry Reid was once Cannon called the most underrated of current Senators. Bryan called him “the most underappreciated.” modest to the point of being shy, which belied a life of great adventure.”
What’s remarkable about Cannon is that he had the Vegas pizzazz before it did — and he wasn’t even from there. But he was a boy of the west in every regard — a native of St. George, Utah who would get his teaching and law degree in Arizona, who would visit Vegas, and go flying through the skies. He and his friend would purchase a Waco bi-plane, and would give fair goers rides.
Cannon was a son of St. George, Utah, a stone’s throw in the days when many of the western states were linked by small population. the once little city had it’s reputation. He played in a band (the saxophone), and would be a kid at Christmas when it came to motorcycles. It would be a love only exceeded by flying. And in the land of Harold Hughes and in life, there were many opportunities. Cannon, in Vegas and beyond. For Cannon, it was off to war, for he was an Air Force Man. And adventure came. His plain was shot down, forcing him to spend six weeks in enemy territory and was forced to dress as a Dutch Farmer.
Upon returning, Cannon settled in Nevada and by 1949, he was a city attorney for Vegas. He’d hold that post for seven years.
Cannon’s personality was somewhat enigmatic. Despite what Las Vegas Review Journal’s K.J. Evanlas in an expansive profile said was Cannon’s “great ear-to-ear smile,” he wasn’t one to wear his hard on his sleeve. His biographer said, “rumination, backslapping or other self-congratulation was not in Cannon’s character.” Bryan, who would share a ticket with Cannon in his 1982 run for Governor, called him “a very bright, competent guy, but not an entertaining speaker.” His “personality,” Bryan said, “was not electric. He was a pretty bland guy.” But Bryan was quick to add that “in no way should that denigrate his significant accomplishments.”
The most important may have been the Southern Nevada Water Project.
Nevada had not been getting the share of the water that it was entitled to under the Colorado River compact. Eventually, water began getting pumped through a 40 inch pipe through a Henderson station but enormous growth made sustaining it impossible. Cannon, along with his senior Democratic Nevada colleague, Alan Bible, introduced an $81 billion package that would relieve the congestion. It passed the Senate, but ran into trouble from Waring, who was still serving in the House. LBJ signed the bill, and Evanslas, notes Cannon as saying, “I used a lot of my brownie points with Lyndon Johnson to get that on.”
It was a quest similar to the one that Arizona’s Carl Hayden’s had undertaken. That took several decades. Cannon’s did not. Andrew Barbano wrote that he and Cannon were quiet effectiveness in Washington.”
Other accomplishments included the Nellis Air Force Base.
Cannon made a bid for Congress in 1956 but lost to Walter Baring. By 1958, he wanted to seek another office but other ambitious Nevadans did as well. It was just before the deadline that they decided who would pursue which office. One friend thought “Cannon was programmed for Governor.” But he was lured into the U.S. Senate race. He was not favored to win the primary.
Cannon’s opponent was a Reno physician named Fred Anderson. But Anderson’s bedside manner didn’t necessarily generate into strong campaign skills. Quite the contrary.
Bryan recalls standing near Anderson on Fremont Street which, in those days, was among the busiest in Vegas. Bryan waited for Anderson to approach him and shake his hand but, “he just stood there.” Cannon would carry just two counties. One was Clark (Lincoln was the other) and it was enough for a win of 3.3%. But it was enough.
In the general, Cannon beat George “Molly” Malone, whom Bryan called “the biggest accidental Senator” (he had captured two terms previously by Democratic splits).
By 1964, Cannon was held in high esteem in Nevada and was not expected to have hard opposition. But Paul Laxalt had charisma. He had backed the Civil Rights Act which in Nevada, called the “Mississippi of the West” in those days was very risky. Bible had opposed the measure. LBJ had offered to “come on out there and campaign either for you or against you. Whichever you think will do you the most good.” Wisely, Cannon chose the first, and his 48 vote margin was certainly made possible by LBJ’s big victory in Nevada. Cannon said later he “My view simply was that it was something that needed to be done, and I was glad to help do it. I wasn’t afraid that it would make things tough for me politically.’
In 1970, Cannon was challenged for a third term by Bill Raggio, who before and after would be considered a mentor to many generations of Nevada Republicans. Raggio was not a hard line conservative. In fact, he often clashed with Sharron Angle in the Senate, and when Raggio won the nomination to take on Reid, Raggio backed Reid. But he was recruited to challenge Cannon by Spiro Agnew. Cannon took 58%.
1976 focused on free air flights Cannon had taken and a pay raise. Much was made of his Senate attendance. But he won with 63%.
So Cannon may have felt his longevity would be enough for the veteran pilot to fly through. He didn’t realize others had opinions that flew under the radar.
Harry Reid said in a press release that Cannon was “so personally committed to maintaining American military superiority that he test flew all new aircraft before voting for money to develop them.” And he flew many even, such as the F-117 when it was in production.
Opening the Rockefeller hearings (Ebay)
Cannon’s footnote to American history is that he presided over the Rules Committee’s confirmation hearings of Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller when they were elected for the Vice-Presidency. It was Cannon who asked Ford if he would pardon Nixon. Ford said he believed the”American people wouldn’t tolerate that.” As the Almanac of American Politics 1978 observed, “that turned out to be right.”
But it was Cannon’s number two slot on the Commerce Committee (which transcended to ranking member) following the 1980 elections that allowed the former Air Force pilot, to fly into rough skies, some of his own doing. It would ultimately perilous and for Cannon, ultimately fatal.
Cannon was one of the key players in the airline deregulation of the 1970’s, carefully cultivating an ambivalent airline industry on board a compromise that President Carter was signed into law.
He met with the President of the Teamster’s to hear their opposition to deregulation of the trucking industry, which Cannon as Commerce Chair had the power to stop. Prosecutors claimed he was offered valuable real estate that the Teamster’s owned in a meeting in Cannon’s office with Teamster’s head Roy Williams and attorney Allen Dorfman and that he had obliged. Cannon said he didn’t know the union head “from a bale of hay” and inquired about making the purchase on behalf of 50 Vegas residents who opposed a housing project that was scheduled to go u on the site.
But he had other problems. Bobby Baker held a fundraiser for him. Also, he was charged with profiting $27,000 from the posting of a ramp on I-95.
In a year just after Shelley Berkley lost an election on making profits, (by almost the same margin as Cannon), the Nevada Senator faced similar accusations. Did Cannon err by not checking with the Ethics Committee? Most definitely. But did he have his hand in the cookie jar. Most who know him think not. But in today’s environment, checking with the Ethics Committee is a must. But his daughter may have captured it best by saying, “I don’t think he knew how the organized-crime mind works.
For Cannon faced re-election that year. Cannon was forced to spend much of the summer of 1982 fending off a primary from Vegas area Congressman Jim Santini. Bryan said he tried to talk Santini out of making the run until the last minute. Cannon survived by fewer than 5,000 votes out of 104,000 cast and a poll soon after showed him up 13%. Bryan can recall visiting Cannon’s office and being told they “dodged a bullet with Santini. Now it’s smooth sailing.”
Cannon late in his career (Ebay photo)
Indeed, businessman Chic Hecht did not seem anything like the imposing figure needed to take down Cannon. He won the Republican nomination with a bare 39% and for the longest time, was a stealth candidate. He did little public campaigning, relying on Laxalt and Reagan, the latter immensely popular in Nevada. It paid dividends.
Reagan made an appearance in early October for Hecht and importuned voters to send him to the Senate. Hecht wrapped himself up in Reagan, which gave Cannon an opening. He challenged Hecht to disagree with Reagan on something, to which he said unemployment. But Cannon did precious little to save his seat. Few saw the need too. Bryan recalls being incredulous talking to a top-level staffer a week before the election and being told, “we’re going to lose.” Bryan replied, “what?”
On Election Day, Cannon became the only Democratic incumbent in the country to lose his seat. Hecht himself, according to exuberantly credited Laxalt with sealing his victory, noting some of his backers said, “we got even” for ’64.
Three weeks after the election, the trial began. Cannon was the first on the witness stand and denied any improprieties. Dorfman was found guilty and faced up to 55 years in prison. Before sentencing could take place, he was shot in the head five times.
Cannon stayed win Washington for ten years as a consultant to an aviation firm, before returning to Vegas. He died at 90 in 2002 of Alzheimers.
A former colleague said “his accomplishments were a matter of record; his heart was too big to put on paper.”
Reno Cannon Airport, which for along time bore Cannon’s name, was changed to Reno-Tahoe, though the terminal still bears his name and there is an aviation museum named for him in Vegas.
Cannon’s loss invited issues of what could have been? On the divisive Yucca Mountain, he point blank told Evanslas that he felt “it could’ve been headed off.” That feeling was widely concurred. Ex-Governor Mike O’Callihan said “he had that kind of power.”
And Nevada Labor summed up Cannon’s legacy nicely with the thought that “tourism may be our number one employer, but the federal government remains in second place, largely due to the efforts of Maj. Gen. Howard Cannon.”
And that, is quite the legacy.